Livinia Ann (Wall) Talbot (1837 - 1901)

Born 27 Apr 1837 in South Africa

Ancestors

Wife of Henry James Talbot Sr — married 13 Jul 1859 in Cape, South Africa

Descendants

Died 1 Mar 1901 at age 63 in Utah

Biography

Livinia Ann Wall (Talbot) April 27, 1837 Pioneer of 1861 (By Bertha Talbot 16 Oct. 1962 -- Information obtained from H. J. Talbot history; family group sheets, and interviews with older people still living, also records kept of births by Henry James Talbot.) Livinia Ann Wall (later Talbot) was born April 27, 1837 at Cradock, South Africa to Robert and Hannah Wall. As she was a cousin to Henry James Talbot and as her grandfather was born in England, her grandparents were among the settlers of 1820 who were called by the English government to colonize South Africa and also to fight the Kaffirs, for the land they received. The amount of land was determined by a horseman setting out in one direction then riding in all four directions coming back to the place he started. All the land was his that he could encompass between sunup and sundown. [This is wrong , because a man could easily cover forty miles on a horse, which would have given him a square of side 10 miles, or an area of 100 square miles = 64 000 acres. In fact, each adult male over 18 years of age was granted 100 acres. Often the land was rocky and infertile.] All her childhood was spent in Africa, about which we know little except in a history of his life which was written by Henry James Talbot, her husband. He says, speaking of his grandparents, that the expedition left England and set sail for Africa on the 6th of Feb.1820. There were eighteen ships in all. He tells of the early hardships of the settlers in a new and different country and especially of the uprisings of the Kaffirs, natives who would swoop down on the settlements in raids and cause terror and bloodshed. ... These English settlers had to band together for safety and leave their farms for the duration of these wars, which was two years in one instance. He also tells of the hunting sports they enjoyed, of the seasons and growing conditions there, saying of this country of South Africa that wonderful place and beautiful if it were not for the uprising and surprise raids of these Kaffirs. But, in spite of all, they prospered there and had a good farm with quite a lot of stock on it. He also tells of his education and of the opportunity to go to school. In 1858, they heard of the gospel and were given some tracts to read and they accepted it. He said they had a novel way of going to church, with seven yoke of oxen. They couldn't rent or hire a rig because they were Mormons, but they bore no ill will toward anyone. [It is misleading to say that "they heard of the gospel" in 1858, because Henry Talbot was baptised in St George's Anglican Cathedral, Grahamstown on 13 Apr 1834. What happened was that the Talbots and the Wiggills were converted to the Church of the Latter Day Saints by their many meetings with the first Mormon Missionaries to South Africa, who were active in the Eastern Cape from about 1856.]

In 1859, they sold their farm and moved into Queenstown, because they had decided to come to America. Henry James Talbot says in his writing: “I had been going with a girl in Queenstown for quite a while so I took a notion to get married. Her Father died and he had requested her to go live with a married sister in Cradock which was 200 miles away. I followed her there and we were married in Cradock on July 13, 1859 The next day we returned to Queenstown. We lived in Queenstown not quite a year, then we moved to Port Elizabeth where our son Robert was born while we were waiting for [a ship which would take us to] America. On February 28, 1861, myself, my wife, Livinia, and our baby, my father and mother went aboard the ship Racehorse, and my son had his first birthday aboard that ship." [They were accompanied by Eli Wiggill and his family.] They arrived in Boston and came across the plains with a company who hired out to bring settlers to Utah. They lived in Kaysville until 1871; when they decided to move up and settle in Lewiston, Utah. Henry and Ruth Sweetnam Talbot stayed in Kaysville. They lived in a dugout on Worm Creek until they took up their farm about 1½ miles west of where they were living. Incidentally, this land is still in the Talbot family. They were among the first live families to settle Lewiston, at that time Lewiston was called by the other settlers, Poverty Flat. As Franklin, Idaho and Richmond, Utah were already settled, these settlers thought them very foolish to settle there. The soil was very sandy and the wind blew across the flat taking sand and all, and nothing grew but large clumps of grass which stock would not eat. Henry James Talbot was among the men who built the Cub River Canal, the same canal from which Lewiston still gets its irrigation water which still follows the same survey those pioneers built it on. It carries the water a distance of approximately ten miles from the Cub River to Lewiston. His oldest son, Robert, who was sixteen at the time, got his leg broken while helping build the canal. Henry James, his father, set the leg right there and put splints on it and it healed perfectly and never gave him any trouble. Before Livinia Ann, or “Sister Talbot” as she was called and is still known by those who remember her, had her last child she had already started to help the people in the settlement as nurse and midwife. The Talbots were people of some education who could read and write, and had some knowledge of medicine. At that time there were many who could neither read nor write. In speaking of them, Brother David Van Orden had said, “When we were in trouble in sickness, we always called the Talbots. Brother Talbot could set limbs and fix medicines of herbs and oil. He used to doctor the men and Sister Talbot the women. If we needed help we went for them. We just expected it of them, and so did others and they always helped.” Brother Van Orden also said, “ Sister Talbot would come to my mother, she would say to us. I have a new baby for you. When it was over she would say, “I will send one of the girls to help you. It was usually Livinia or Emmy her two oldest girls and those girls would take over doing the housework, tending the children, cooking, washing on the washboard. They only charged $1.50 a week. Sister Talbot would come back each day for three days checking my mother and the baby, and when my father said 'What do I owe you?' she would say '$3.00' like she hated to charge anything at all.” He said, “I will always remember her, and I can see her, a large serene woman who wore her hair straight back with a bun, very quiet and reserved -- never had much to say about anyone, just went about her business helping everyone. She was very modest and particular about her person, but never seemed to find fault with anyone.” Sister Bella Kemp said of her, “I can remember Sister Talbot being called to our home because we were sick. She said, 'Sister Kemp, your children have the measles: keep them warm and in bed in a darkened room.' I remember them as people who helped other people in every way possible. They had a lot of faith and deep love of the Gospel. They were religious in deed as well as voice. They were depended on by everyone in the community." In their home they had a deep love of each other and a loyalty to each other. They loved music and used to sing and play, several of their family played musical instruments. Henry James Talbot helped organize the first Sunday School and was the first choir-leader and for many years led the choir. He was a home missionary, walking many miles to visit people in their homes. Sister Talbot delivered 372 babies from 1878 to 1893. She traveled to Oxford, Idaho in the North to Hyde Park in the South, a distance of fifteen miles either way. She went in all types of conveyances and all kinds of weather. It is said that she left once on the front runners of a sleigh when the snow was so deep the horses had to lunge to make it in the drifts. She was headed for Oxford, Idaho. She afterward said of the horse on one such occasion, “My what a noble animal.” Three hundred and seventy two babies in fifteen years, she helped bring into this world, besides giving birth to one of her own and going to help with the sick. She and her husband raised five boys and five girls. No one ever heard their children call them or speak of them except as Father and Mother. She had a great love of all children and could hardly pass one by without speaking or noticing them. Living at all times was never easy for Henry James and Livinia Ann Talbot. They had a hard life, but they were a good people and tried with whatever they had to do with, to make as good a life as possible. Henry James Talbot had come to Lewiston he could have claimed a large fortune by his birthright; but he would have had to go to England to live, which he wouldn't consider at all; saying he preferred the Gospel and being able to live it in his own way. For this he was censured by many, even some of his family, but it never worried him. Brother Talbot and his wife loved flowers, especially roses. They grew many beautiful shrubs some of which are still growing in the old home yard. Sister Talbot died March 1, 1901 after a long illness at their home in Lewiston, Utah which is still standing. She is buried In the Lewiston cemetery. But Sister and Brother Talbot still live in the memories of our older people who still think of them as the Talbots they called when they needed help. Surely as the poet said, “They lived in a house by the side of the road and were a friend of men.”

[The article includes a photograph of their joint gravestone with the inscription: In Memory of Livinia A. Wall b. April 27, 1837 d. March 1, 1901 H.J.Talbot b. February 17, 1834 d. July 31, 1910 " 'Tis finished, the conflict is past. The heaven-born spirit is fled. " Lewiston, Utah Cemetery.]

Sources

[McArthur-306 : Ian McArthur - 3 May 2016]

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